Sermon: First Sunday of Advent

November 29, 2009

The First Sunday of Advent

Luke 21:25-36

Holy Trinity Parish, Decatur, Georgia

The Very Reverend William T. Deneke, rector

Advent is upon us; we have only four weeks to prepare for Christmas. Four weeks of shopping, decorating and partying. But that is not the preparation called for in the Bible readings for Advent.

The Psalm for today sets a tone that causes us to pause. It is a lament, a plea for God to reveal the ways and paths of the Lord. No “city sidewalk, busy sidewalks dressed in holiday style”. But rather a plea, even a demand, to be taught.

The epistle provides a window into the struggle of the early church to grasp the wonderful and bewildering future inaugurated by the risen Christ. Paul responds to the embryonic faith of the Thessalonians by blessing the young church. He holds up for them the promise of their faith and reveals his love for the community. “And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all people, as we do to you.” This is heartwarming and encouraging.

Then Paul adds a prayer that the Thessalonians may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Writer and teacher Reynolds Price developed a spinal tumor that was not only deadly but also incredibly painful. He tells us that he was not an especially religious person. But very early one morning he had a vision that transported him to the shore of the Sea of Galilee. He saw twelve persons that he knew were the disciples and a sleeping man that he knew was Jesus. Jesus then stood up and walked toward him. Taking his hand, he led into the water. He took handfuls of water and poured them on Price’s head and damaged back. Then Jesus said: “Your sins are forgiven.” Price asked, “Am I also cured?” And Jesus said, “That too.”

It is the grace and forgiveness of God that rends us blameless. Jesus comes to us on clouds of forgiveness. The great poet Tennyson wrote of his faith. “Not one life shall be destroyed or cast as rubbish to the void.”

Paul focuses on and draws out that seed of faith, that kernel of hope and projects it onto the large screen of promise revealed in Christ.

Both the psalm and epistle plea for a future shaped by God and both draw from this promise to embrace hope. They have as a backdrop the words we heard from the prophet Jeremiah. His vision of hope was also set against a background of destruction. As the first, lone candle of Advent burns, Jeremiah recalls his own city burning, yet speaks of God’s future of hope.

The hope revealed in these scriptures is not just holiday cheer. Nor is it a denial of suffering and death. The hope of which we hear this morning is so drawn from the love of God that we, too, can dare to proclaim, even at the grave, “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia”.

And then comes the gospel for this First Sunday of Advent. And, on the surface, it seems to have no real connection with the lyrics “In the air there’s a feeling of Christmas.” But if we go beneath the surface of the holidays to the place where redemption is at work, there is, indeed, a feeling of new life in the air and in the heart and throughout the world.

Luke presents a vision of a redeemed future that embraces all reality. The coming of the long expected Jesus is not divorced from the turmoil and suffering of the world. Hang onto your hats, keep the faith, do good works, get ready to have your socks blown off. Jesus is coming and a new realm of truth and justice is emerging. We are being redeemed.

The Jewish Talmud proclaims, “Do not be daunted by the Enormity of the world’s grief.

Do justice now.

Love mercy now.

Walk humbly now.

You are not obligated to complete the work,

but neither are you free to abandon it”.

New Testament theologian Gail O’Day points out that the lessons for this Sunday may seem foreign or discomforting. Yet, she says, “Without this eschatological vision, our celebration of Christmas can become solely an occasion of nostalgia and sentimentality rather than a bold enactment of God’s hopes for the world.”

An issue for many of us is that nostalgia and sentimentality are pretty attractive. We may be looking and listening for silver bells. The sentimental side of Christmas is bigger than life and clearly gets our attention. That’s why O’Day’s words ring true. Is the real promise of Christmas more than can be found under a tree?

The scriptures maintain that Advent points not to what is under the tree but to who was killed upon the tree and rose again. And maybe we don’t want to be reminded of this in late November and December. Maybe we had rather focus only on the promise of new birth and joy and happiness.

But the scriptures know the whole story. And when they speak of the hope of the future, they bear witness to the great drama of redemption in which the love of God is transforming sorrow into joy and hurt into forgiveness.

The scriptures bid us to prepare for the fullness of God’s love, the fullness of redemption and forgiveness. Opening our hearts and minds and lives to this hope that embraces both love and suffering, prepares us to receive grace even now.

Lately, I’ve heard story after story of individuals being called into offices and told they are no longer employed. Often they are told to leave by another door and not return to their workplaces. Sometimes they are even escorted from the building by security guards. These are people who have been loyal employees. Many who have sacrificed for their companies.

Such practices dehumanize and try the souls of men and women. They are a reminder of cruelty and suffering and the need for redemption. And they lead us to the Advent cry, Come, Lord Jesus.

Jesus, who is redeeming humanity, is the Expected One known to scriptures. Not just a jolly, benevolent father figure, but a man who loved and suffered and died for others. A man who revealed the presence of God in forgiving and healing and sacrificing. A man who revealed God’s faith in the future despite the suffering of the present, and did so by entering fully into the joys and sorrows of humankind. A savior and lord who rose from the dead and will come again. It is this long expected savior for which this season invites us to prepare.

The Advent vision of hope is salvation for a troubled world. Writer Edward Hays has said that Advent is a winter training ground for those who desire peace. It is not afraid to look at the sins of the world and still dare to hope that the world is being redeemed.

It is a short season, only four weeks. But Advent has much to offer. The good news it conveys means that we can hope, despite all that is falling apart in our lives, our communities, and the world around us. Advent offers us expectation and hope for something new. “Stand up and raise your heads”, says the gospel, “because your redemption is drawing near.”